British American Tobacco p.l.c. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.74 (NYSE:BTI)

British American Tobacco p.l.c. (NYSE:BTI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 8th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 20th will be given a dividend of 0.7431 per share on Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $2.97 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 20th.

British American Tobacco has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.5% per year over the last three years. British American Tobacco has a dividend payout ratio of 62.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect British American Tobacco to earn $4.68 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.97 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 63.5%.

British American Tobacco Stock Performance

British American Tobacco stock opened at $37.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $36.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. British American Tobacco has a 52 week low of $28.25 and a 52 week high of $39.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.79 and a beta of 0.53.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BTI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised shares of British American Tobacco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of British American Tobacco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded British American Tobacco from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $33.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Thursday, October 3rd.

About British American Tobacco

British American Tobacco p.l.c. engages in the provision of tobacco and nicotine products to consumers worldwide. It also offers vapour, heated, and modern oral nicotine products; combustible cigarettes; and traditional oral products, such as snus and moist snuff. The company offers its products under the Vuse, glo, Velo, Grizzly, Kodiak, Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Rothmans, Camel, Natural American Spirit, Newport, Vogue, Viceroy, Kool, Peter Stuyvesant, Craven A, State Express 555 and Shuang Xi brands.